Page 16 of A Wolf in the Garden

“What about this one? All it says is ‘E’. Looks in bad shape to me — they’ve done a shite job of moving your things, between the dents in the table and then this.”

I take one look at the small, battered box he’s holding and sit down on the bench that lines the back of the garage, hanging my head in my hands. I don’t want to deal with that box — or the conversation that’s about to take place — right now.

“That bad, is it?”

“It’s Ellie’s stuff.”

His eyebrows lift in surprise. “Oh, aye? From years ago?”

“Nine years ago, yes.”

He brings it over, sitting on the bench next to me, the wood creaking slightly under our combined weight.

“Nine years is a long time to hold onto someone else’s possessions.”

I sigh, leaning back until my head thunks against the wall, staring up at the garage ceiling as I say, “You’re not going to let this go, are you?”

“Probably not, lad.” His voice is gentle but decisive.

“I already have a therapist, you know.”

“Aye. That’s good. But that therapist doesn’t love you, do they? I’ve known you since you were a wee pup, back before things soured with your father, when you used to follow him around without worrying about you both being alphas. I care about you as if you were my own lad. And I care about Ellie the same. So, you could say I have a vested interest in this matter.”

Well,fuck. I can’t really tell him to drop it when he goes and says something like that, and I know he’s trying to look out for Ellie too. I keep my eyes on the ceiling as I fill him in.

“All of the things in that box are her things that she had left at our place in Bluewater Bay the summer that we were together, plus the odd thing she’d given me over the years before that.”

“Remind me, how old were you two?”

“She was eighteen, I was twenty one. We always came down to New Zealand for December and January, but I’d missed the family vacation for the three years prior because of college, so I hadn’t seen her since she was fourteen and I was seventeen. Every summer she’d be waiting for us outside the gate on the day we arrived, butthatsummer I actually flew in a week early because I’d had a practical semester out at a vineyard in France, so I ended up driving straight to her house and surprising her.”

“When you hadn’t seen the lass for three years?”

“Yeah, well, Lacey had forwarded me some photos that Ellie had sent her, of her at the beach. I mean, you’ve got eyes.” I shrug. “She’s beautiful. And I hadn’t intended to go directly there, it was honestly impulsive. I pulled into the main street on the bay — there’s only one road that goes through there, and then a few side streets that split off from it — and Ellie’s house was this run downbachthat was right there, andshewas right there. I almost crashed my car when I saw her.”

Cam chuckles. “You did not.”

“I did, seriously, because I was going around the bend, and there was an oncoming car … plus, that was my first time driving on the opposite side of the road.”

“So she distracted you.”

“She… she dazzled me. She was in her garden. She’s always fucking gardening.” I can feel my throat getting tight, and take a shaky breath. “She was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen in my entire life. That moment, that’s one of my core memories, you know? She was wearing these little denim shorts and flip flops and just a bikini top, and when I pulled up I could hear her singing to herself — she’s got a sweet voice but she doesn’t sing often — she was singing some pop song, with her headphones in, not paying attention at all. Us wolves, our wolf side…” I pause, trying to think about how to best explain what it’s like, to be both a shifter and a werewolf. “I’m them and they are me, but… they do feel separate, like there’s three of us in this one body, even though we are all Evander and we all share thoughts and memories. Icontrol it all in every form that I’m in, and most of the time I’m justme, but sometimes they speak separately, for themselves.”

“So you don’t have voices in your head all the time?”

“No. But atthatmoment, I did. They were very loud. I got out of the car, and herscent. Fuck. They still do it now when I smell her.”

“Do what?”

“They chantmate, mate, mate, mate, non-stop.” I glance at his slightly horrified face and realise that could be interpreted wrong. “I mean they think she is my mate, our mate! Notmating.”

“Suuuure.”

I jab my elbow at him. “I got out of the car and her scent was very distracting, and I was a goner. I had no hope, not that I wanted to resist it anyway. So she finally noticed me standing there and screamed because I gave her a hell of a fright, so bad that she actually burst into tears from the shock of it. I felt like a piece of shit, but it ended with me comforting her and then kissing her there in the middle of her lawn.”

“And you had a week alone with the lass.”

I grin. “It was a good week. By the time my parents arrived, she’d already stayed over four nights in a row. Her mom didn’t care because Ellie knew our family so well and she’d stayed at our place every summer anyway, though I don’t think Ellie let on that my parents weren’t home.”

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